Challenger disaster

The Challenger Disaster By: Kathy Neuner & Jeremy Rider Executive Summary Many factors must be examined to find the underlying reason for the horrible disaster of the space shuttle Challenger. We will cover both the technical causes to the disaster and the communication breakdown with NASA. We will also look at the outside pressure that NASA was receiving from the media, congress and the military. Recommendations for NASA and anyone in the communication field will be given. These recommendations

Jake Hall Professor Ripley Engineering Ethics 29 May 2017 The Challenger Disaster Unfortunately, there is always risk when it comes to space flight. This makes it difficult to determine what constitutes an “Acceptable” risk. A space agency has many worries such as their reputation with the public and the world, the success of their missions, and most importantly the lives of their staff and astronauts. Engineers are usually technically gifted but lacking in organization. This spawns a need for non-technical

Americans witnessed the destruction of the breathtaking challenger space shuttle. Even though the disaster caused nationwide sadness, the reasons for its failure are clear. Named after the British ship that sailed across the Atlantic hundreds of years, could carry more than two thousand pounds the challenger was truly a glorious achievement.

investigation of the Challenger disaster. It was a cold morning when Challenger was supposed to fly into space. Several NASA officials urged that the launch be postponed for warmer weather conditions. Since the NASA Launch Decision Team had okayed several space shuttles launches at and below that present temperature and had gotten away with it, the order was ignored (Howell). Seventy-three seconds later NASA realized that their luck had finally run out. President Ronald Regan tasked the Disaster Authority Commission

Before the Challenger disaster NASA was a company that once was never prepared to handle disaster. NASA experienced it’s first disaster in October of 1968 known as the Apollo. When the Apollo occurred NASA wasn't prepared and failed at protecting it’s company and discussing the publics concerns for the disaster. NASA at this time had no exact protocol on handling disasters and acted on impulse which contributed to NASA losing their reputation. After the Apollo disaster NASA made it best efforts

changes in the wake of the Challenger disaster started well before the lives of the astronauts were lost. The lack of centralization of management and the fact that different aspects of the organization had locations ranging from D.C. to Florida allowed for no one to really accept and own up to the fact that they were at fault. No one group or person took responsibility, so it was cast upon the entire NASA organization and no one took it upon themselves to make sure that a disaster of this caliber would

On January 28, 1986, Ronald Reagan, comforting and empathetic in his speech entitled “Speech on the Challenger disaster”, facilitates the mourning process of the American people following the Challenger Disaster. He is able to accomplish this by connecting on a personal level with everyone affected by the tragedy: the school children, family of the deceased, and the entire American population. In addition, he explains specifically addresses the children with lessons to be learned, and how to move

The Challenger Disaster: Fated Before Liftoff In 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger launched from Kennedy Space Center people watched in awe for a little more than a minute before the shuttle exploded in flight. This was the first of only two major accidents that occurred during over two decades of NASA’s shuttle program and many would consider it to be a fluke that could not have been prevented or predicted. In truth the Challenger disaster was an accident waiting to happen and was a symptom

The Challenger Disaster was one of the biggest events of the 1980’s. It symbolized that space travel is a challenging endeavor which bears it’s own set of risks, especially when the entirety of the shuttle program was plagued with issues up until the Challenger incident. Initially, America put a ton of resources into the space program in order to achieve the goal of winning the Space Race. Once that goal was achieved, America’s space program was scaled down to a fraction of the previous budget (space

Shuttle Challenger Disaster In March, 1970, President Richard Milhous Nixon “opted for the shuttle-tended space base as a long-range goal but deferred going ahead with the space station pending development of the shuttle vehicle” (NASA,1986). Thus the Space Shuttle, which was considered as merely the transport element of a broad earlier, was reused and became the concentration of NASA's near- term future. Challenger, as NASA’s second orbiter which was put into service after Columbia in Space Shuttle